La Plataforma en Defensa de los Regadíos del Condado (The Platform in Defence of the County’s Irrigation Systems) and Freshuelva have urged for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be approved for the transfer of 4.99 hm³ of water, since in spite of being approved, at present, the surface water has not reached the 200 hectares of cropland in the County due to the lack of this formality, for which the report by the Andalusian Government is already available.
The association of exporters and producers from Huelva has also recalled that the solution for the farmers, who have been demanding the standardisation of the situation for the past 30 years, involves the transfer of 15 hm³ of water from the Guadiana basin to the Guadalquivir, about which “nobody understands why it has not been approved yet, when the Commission of Agriculture from the Congress gave it the go ahead months ago and it was approved by the Senate,” the manager of Freshuelva, Rafael Domínguez, pointed out.
The situation “makes no sense” because the start up of all these steps “benefit all the different parties: it gives a solution to the irrigation of 3,000 hectares belonging to 1,500 farmers who sustain the region’s economy and, in addition to this, it would mean the closure of wells and subsequently, a greater protection of the Doñana National Park.”
